viz.

Image Credit: New York Times

When I looked through The New York Times’s feature this week on World Series program covers, the image above stood out. No, it didn’t stand out because of the cute dog peaking out from behind the boy’s right knee, or because the war bonds saleswoman looks like a flight attendant. It stood out simply because on first glace it seemed to depict a young boy dressing as a baseball player in order to go to an important baseball game. The “WAR BONDS AND STAMPS” table looks like it might be part of a turnstile, and the boy looks happy just to be inside of his team’s park. What could be a more fitting image for the Fall Classic of our national pastime?

(Image Credit: Jay Voss)

Please note, the opinions expressed herein are solely those of viz. blog, and are not the product of the Harry Ransom Center.

Forever Amber was the best-selling book in 1940s America, selling over three million copies during the decade (Guttridge). In many ways, the scope of the work recalls Thackeray’s The Luck of Barry Lyndon. Written by Kathleen Winsor and set in seventeenth-century England, Forever Amber is the tale of Amber St. Clare, who climbs the ranks of British society by marrying (or sometimes just sleeping with) wealthier and wealthier men. The book was subject to vehement censorship, even though (or perhaps in spite of) a market demand that surely tested the durability of the Macmillan Company’s printing operation. Interestingly enough, as part of their Banned, Burned, Seized, and Censored exhibit, the Harry Ransom Center is showing an Armed Services Edition of Forever Amber.